Father Peter I of Courtenay Siblings Peter II of Courtenay Children Isabella of Angouleme | Name Alice Courtenay Mother Elisabeth of Courtenay | |
Noble family Capetian House of Courtenay Died February 12, 1218, Angouleme, France Spouse Aymer of Angouleme (m. 1186) Parents Peter I of Courtenay, Peter II of Courtenay Similar People Isabella of Angouleme, Hugh X of Lusignan, Eleanor of Leicester, Louis VI of France, Henry III of England | ||
Alice of Courtenay, Countess of Angoulême (1160 – 12 February 1218) was a French noblewoman of the House of Courtenay. Her father was Peter I of Courtenay and her brother was Peter II of Courtenay, Latin Emperor of Constantinople. Alice married twice; by her second husband, Aymer Taillefer, Count of Angoulême, she was the mother of Isabella of Angoulême, who was Queen consort of England, as the wife of King John.
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She is also known as Alix de Courtenay.
Family
Alice was born in 1160, the second eldest daughter and one of the ten children of Peter I of Courtenay and Elisabeth of Courtenay, daughter of Renauld de Courtenay and Hawise du Donjon. Her family was one of the most illustrious in France; and her paternal grandparents were King Louis VI of France and Adélaide de Maurienne. Her eldest brother Peter became the Latin Emperor of Constantinople in 1216. In addition to Peter, she had three more brothers, Philippe de Courtenay, Robert, Seigneur of Champignelles, and William, Seigneur of Tanlay; and five sisters, Eustacie, Clemence, Isabelle, Constance, and another whose name is unknown.
Marriages
Her first husband was Andrew, lord of La Ferté-Gaucher, Champagne, whom she married some time after 1169.
Following his death in 1177, Alice was married for the second time to, Guillaume I, count of Joigny, . The marriage produced one surviving child, Peter, later count of Joigny, (d.1222). The couple were divorced c.1184. A charter dated 1180 records that Count Guillaume, with Alice's consent, donated property to Pontigny Abbey.
Alice married her third husband, Aymer Taillefer c.1186, (the year he succeeded his brother, William V as Count of Angoulême). The marriage produced one surviving child:
Alice's husband died on 16 June 1202. Their only child, Isabella succeeded him as suo jure Countess of Angoulême.
She herself died on 12 February 1218 at the age of about 58.